Fly by the pants Raspberry TC

[ScottM]

I'm REALLY enjoying the OTR mixed berry cider that I made a little while back. So much so that I decided I wanted to experiment a little with the old TC. I have an idea of what I'm after but no idea of how to get there so I'm just kind of making it up as I go along. I have no doubt that I will make a lot of changes over the next few batches but for now I think I have started off with a reasonable base.

I'm fairly sure that the OTR kits consist of a fair whack of grape juice as well as apple juice, so bearing that in mind I've gone with the following....

12L Apple Juice
8L Grape Juice
1.32L Lowicz Raspberry Concentrate
The usual additives Malic/Tannin/etc

The OG came out fairly high thanks to the raspberry concentrate so I'll probably water it down a little when I transfer into the secondary for maturing. I may even see if I can find a black currant cordial made with sweetener but no preservatives (might need to boil here) just to add another twist and sweeten it up a little. I'll wait and see what its like once its dried out a little though.

OG was 1.064 @ 18 DegC. Corrected I still make that 1.064. I've calculated the potential FG to be 0.998 so that will give 8.7%. Watering it down with 2L of water (or other) will bring the OG down to 1.055 which will still leave me with 7.5%. I like my ciders around the 7% mark but I don't want to water it down TOO much. Having said that the Lowicz stuff is good for a 5:1 ratio so in reality I should be able to add anything up to 5L before having to worry. I'll wait and see what I'm left with when it's fermented out :)

 

[GeorgeSalt]

I may even see if I can find a black currant cordial made with sweetener but no preservatives (might need to boil here) just to add another twist and sweeten it up a little. I'll wait and see what its like once its dried out a little though.

Lowicz has a blackcurrant in the same range..

 

[ScottM]

I may even see if I can find a black currant cordial made with sweetener but no preservatives (might need to boil here) just to add another twist and sweeten it up a little. I'll wait and see what its like once its dried out a little though.

Lowicz has a blackcurrant in the same range..

I read about that, might give that stuff a go next time (Asda didn't have it). It's no good for this batch though, due to it being high in sugar. I really need something to water it down rather than to add to it. Thought a little touch of sweet wouldn't go wrong :)

 

[GeorgeSalt]

I use the Lowicz as a flavouring in TC, using one 440ml bottle per gallon and no extra sugar. My ballpark calculations put that fermenting dry just short of 8%. Fermented dry the raspberry flavour is perfect, the only problem is that it's too drinkable and doesn't taste as strong as it is. We don't label it "Raspberry Falling Down Water" for nothing!

 

[ScottM]

I use the Lowicz as a flavouring in TC, using one 440ml bottle per gallon and no extra sugar. My ballpark calculations put that fermenting dry just short of 8%. Fermented dry the raspberry flavour is perfect, the only problem is that it's too drinkable and doesn't taste as strong as it is. We don't label it "Raspberry Falling Down Water" for nothing!

That sounds great

Between the grape juice and the lowicz I reckon I would hit around 10% if I chucked in 5 bottles lol.

I'm really looking forward to this. I'd like to have it medium dry/medium. I think I'll experiment a little before bottling. That'll be a month or 2 down the line anyway :)

 

[GeorgeSalt]

Between the grape juice and the lowicz I reckon I would hit around 10% if I chucked in 5 bottles lol.

I just chucked that into my spreadsheet to see what I got.. with 12l apple, 8l grape and 5 bottles Lowicz I get 182g/l sugar (4.044kg in 22.2litres).. somewhere over 8.5% dry.

(114g/l apple, 156g/l red grape, 648g/l raspberry)

 

[ScottM]

Between the grape juice and the lowicz I reckon I would hit around 10% if I chucked in 5 bottles lol.

I just chucked that into my spreadsheet to see what I got.. with 12l apple, 8l grape and 5 bottles Lowicz I get 182g/l sugar (4.044kg in 22.2litres).. somewhere over 8.5% dry.

(114g/l apple, 156g/l red grape, 648g/l raspberry)

Ahh I'm using white grape, 172g/l


That would see an OG of around 1.067. The FG usually ends up around the 0.997-0.999 mark, which would give between 9% and 9.3%.

That's into wine territory

 

[ScottM]

Found out the other day that my hydrometer is reading approx 4 points high, so bearing that in mind the OG is actually 1.060.

Still quite high, but at least going the right way

 

[GaryG]

Sorry to open up an old thread. I just bought a bottle of raspberry lowicz. Im going to add it to 4.5 litres of apple juice. some tannin powers and malic acid. Do I need to boil the lowicz ?


Gary.


PS was the cider nice Scott :thumb: :thumb:

 

[ScottM]

Sorry to open up an old thread. I just bought a bottle of raspberry lowicz. Im going to add it to 4.5 litres of apple juice. some tannin powers and malic acid. Do I need to boil the lowicz ?


Gary.


PS was the cider nice Scott :thumb: :thumb:

Cider was lovely mate, absolute rocket fuel so I would be careful with what you add to it.

For a gallon I would use 1/2 a bottle MAX, that will give a very nice twist of raspberry without being too overpowering (it's a concentrate after all).

The lowicz is around 63% sugar (or something like that), so adding 440ml = 277g sugar.

Apple juice = 115g (approx)

So 4*115 + 277 = 737g of sugar. 737g in 4.5L will give around 7.8% ABV.

Not quite what I hit with my brew, but for me it was too much. Cutting it back to half a bottle and topping up with water gives 6.3%... much more like it

Oh, lowicz doesn't require boiling :)

 

[simkin]

A whole 440 ml of the syrup will make it hyper-raspberry. I add 150 ml to 4 litres of AJ and top up with water for a delicious very raspberry TC at about 6% ( maybe a little over with priming sugar ). My girlfriend visited and is convinced my raspberry cider cured her of her cold before we went clubbing last night. She reckons it should be marketed as a medicine